Method and system of selecting antennas and equipment for use within a wireless communication system

ABSTRACT

A method and system of selecting antennas and/or equipment for use within a wireless communication system is disclosed. A cell site may have one antenna-arrangement shared between multiple groups of radio equipment that are each operated by respective wireless service providers at the cell site. The cell site may also have a base station controller that may select from the shared antenna-arrangement an antenna for radiating signals from the groups of radio equipment. The base station controller may also select from the multiple groups of radio equipment a group of radio equipment for processing signals received at the shared antenna-arrangement.

BACKGROUND

A. Field of Invention

The present invention is related to wireless communication systems, andmore particularly, to a method and system of selecting antennas andequipment for use within a wireless communication system.

B. Description of Related Art

In a typical wireless communication system, an area is dividedgeographically into a number of cell sites, each defined by one or moreradiation patterns created by an emission of radio frequency (RF)electromagnetic (EM) waves from a respective base transceiver station(BTS) antenna. For wireless communications, EM signals are not sentthrough a transmission line, and therefore antennas are required for thetransmission and reception of the signals. A group of antennas or anantenna array may be used. An antenna array is a set of antennas workingtogether to produce a particular radiation pattern. Each antenna in thearray is referred to as an antenna element (or simply an element).

An antenna can radiate in a specified direction or directions. Anantenna produces a radiation pattern, which may either be uniform ornon-uniform. A uniform radiation pattern (i.e., omni-directionalpattern) may result due to energy radiating from all parts of theantenna and arriving at a distant point at the same time or in phase. Asthe antenna becomes larger, the radiated energy is distributed in timeand does not always arrive at a distant point at the same time. When theenergy arrives at different time intervals, the energy does not alwaysadd in phase and the result may be a lower amount of received energyresulting in a smaller non-uniform antenna radiation pattern.

An antenna radiation pattern is also referred to as an antenna-beam orbeam. A beam width of an antenna is a measure of directivity of anantenna and is usually defined by angles where the radiation patternreduces to one half of its peak value or more commonly referred to as 3db points (i.e., 3 decibel power level).

In the typical wireless communication system, each cell site has a BTS,which physically consists of a tower, antennas, and radio equipment. Thetower is a large upright structure that provides a frame to mount theantennas. The tower may house multiple antenna systems, and each antennasystem may have multiple antenna-elements.

Cell sites are operated by one or more wireless service providers (WSP).A WSP is a company that provides telecommunications through RF signalsrather than (or in addition to) through end-to-end wire communication.Each WSP employs a wireless signaling protocol. For example, wirelesssignaling protocols such as global system for mobile communications(GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), etc., can be used by WSPsto provide services such as personal communication system (PCS),personal digital cellular (PDC), personal handy phone system (PHS), andothers. Communications from a mobile station to a BTS (i.e., reverselink communications) and from a BTS to a mobile station (i.e., forwardlink communications) are completed using such protocols.

In existing cell sites, each WSP supplies its own antennas and radioequipment. However, multiple wireless service providers may share onetower due to a lack of geographic sites for telecommunication towersand/or to reduce costs. Therefore, a BTS may have multiple groups ofradio equipment (i.e., a group of radio equipment may include areceiver, a transmitter, or other equipment) and multiple antennas. Eachgroup of radio equipment may correspond to a separate group of antennasmounted on the tower and to a respective WSP.

When multiple WSPs are served by a single cell site, a large number ofantennas and connecting wires (i.e., feeder cables) are required at thecell site to provide air interfaces between mobile stations and radioequipment corresponding to the multiple WSPs, because each WSP needs itsown antenna or antennas. In addition, a WSP itself may operate usingmultiple radio frequencies, and the WSP may require a separate antennafor each radio frequency.

Unfortunately, however, a significant number of towers were originallybuilt to accommodate only a single set of antennas or were imposed withheight limitations that have effectively limited the towers to one ortwo sets of antennas. In addition, many towers have limited space, thusrestricting their ability to host multiple antennas, and thereforerestricting their ability to host multiple WSPs. Further, installing alarge number of antennas is burdensome and costly. Consequently, asystem that overcomes these problems is desirable.

SUMMARY

In an exemplary embodiment, a method is provided that includes receivinga signal that has a system identification code (SID) and determining theSID of the signal. The method further includes, based at least in parton the SID, selecting one or more antenna-arrangements to radiate thesignal and sending the signal to the one or more antenna-arrangements tobe radiated. In an alternate exemplary embodiment, the method includes,based at least in part on the SID, selecting a group of equipment from aplurality of groups of equipment to process the signal and sending thesignal to the group of equipment.

In another embodiment, a base station controller is provided that has acommunication interface for sending and receiving signals. The basestation controller also has a processor connected to the communicationinterface. Additionally, the base station controller has machinelanguage instructions stored in data storage and executable by theprocessor to perform functions including determining an SID of arespective signal and, based at least in part on the SID, selecting oneor more antenna-arrangements to radiate the respective signal andsending the signal to the one or more antenna-arrangements to beradiated.

In still another embodiment, a system is provided that has one or moreantenna-arrangements that are each operable to provide a radiationpattern defining an air interface for radiating and receiving signals.The system also has a base station controller connected to the one ormore antenna-arrangements and a plurality of groups of equipmentconnected to the base station controller. The base station controllermay determine a respective SID of each signal, and based at least inpart on the respective SID, the base station controller may select oneantenna-arrangement from the one or more antenna-arrangements forradiating signals. The base station controller may then send the signalsto that selected antenna-arrangement. The base station controller mayalso select a group of equipment from the plurality of groups ofequipment to process received signals.

These as well as other features and advantages of the present inventionwill become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by readingthe following detailed description, with appropriate reference to theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

Reference is made to the attached drawings, wherein elements that havethe same reference numeral designations represent like elementsthroughout and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a wirelesscommunication system;

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a cell site;

FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of a cell site;

FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of a cell site;

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a base station controller;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting functional blocks of a method accordingto one embodiment; and

FIG. 7 is another flowchart depicting functional blocks of a methodaccording to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

A. Wireless Communication System

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a method and system ofselecting antennas and/or equipment for use within a wirelesscommunication system, such as a cellular communication network forinstance, is provided. Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram illustratingone embodiment of a wireless communication system 100 is provided. Itshould be understood that this and other arrangements described hereinare set forth for purposes of example only, and other arrangements andelements can be used instead and some elements may be omittedaltogether. Further, as in most telecommunications applications, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that many of the elements describedherein are functional entities that may be implemented as hardware,firmware and/or software, and as discrete components or in conjunctionwith other components, in any suitable combination and location.

By way of example, the wireless communication system 100 is shown toinclude a mobile station (MS) 102 in communication via an air interface104 with a base transceiver station (BTS) 106, which is coupled to abase station controller (BSC) 108. The BSC 108 is also coupled to anetwork 114. Mobile stations such as cellular telephones, personaldigital assistants (PDA), wireless modems, or other mobile nodes may beused in the wireless communication system 100.

BTS 106 includes one or more antennas arranged to produce radiationpatterns defining one or more sectors. Additional BTSs 110 and 112coupled to BSC 108 are also illustrated. Although three BTSs areillustrated within FIG. 1, it will be understood that more or fewer BTSsmay be present within the wireless communication system 100.

BSC 108 is an interface between BTSs 106, 110, and 112 and the network114. BSC 108 also handles radio resource management and radio networkmanagement functions for BTSs 106, 110, and 112.

The network 114 may be any transport network and/or entity used to routesignals to and from the MS 102. For example, network 114 may comprise amobile switching center (MSC), a packet data service node (PDSN), anInternet protocol (IP) network, the public switched telephone network(PSTN), or any other wireless communication transport network. Inaddition, network 114 may allow for connectivity to multiple switchingplatforms, such as a short message service center (SMSC) and an uplinkserver, for example.

Each of the couplings of the wireless communication system 100,excluding the air interface 104, may be interfaces such as a trunk level1 (T1) line, an Ethernet line, a signaling link, or other connections.

The wireless communication system 100 may be divided geographically intoa number of cell sites. At the core of each cell site is a BTS, such asBTSs 106, 110, and 112, whose antennas define a radio frequency (RF)radiation pattern. Further, each cell site may be divided into a numberof sectors, each defined respectively by radiation patterns fromdirectional antenna elements of the cell site's BTS. Each sectortypically has a beam width of about 120 degrees. However, sectors canhave any desired beam width.

The radiation pattern of each sector in a cell site produces an airinterface that defines a respective coverage area, such as air interface104. When an MS is positioned within such a coverage area, the airinterface provides a communication path between the MS and the BTS. Andthe MS can then communicate through this path with entities on thewireless communication system 100.

In the wireless communication system 100, WSPs of the BTSs 106, 110, and112 may transmit signals using one or more carrier frequencies. Acarrier frequency (or simply carrier) is a transmitted electromagneticpulse or wave at a steady frequency of alternation on which informationcan be imposed by increasing signal strength, varying the frequency,varying the wave phase, or other means. This variation is referred to asmodulation. Types of analog modulation of a carrier may includeamplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), and phasemodulation. Types of digital modulation may include varieties of pulsecode modulation (PCM), including pulse amplitude modulation (PAM), pulseduration modulation (PDM), and pulse position modulation (PPM).

In addition, in the United States, each WSP is assigned an SID (e.g., aunique five-digit number) by the Federal Communications Commission(FCC), to differentiate communications (e.g., wireless signaling)between mobile stations and a respective WSP. Assignment of an SID fromthe FCC authorizes a WSP to transmit wireless signals in an area. TheSID may be transmitted within wireless signals as a binary string ofone's and zero's.

An MS is typically registered with one WSP and the MS may be assignedthe SID of that WSP. In communications between a BTS and an MS, the SIDidentifies the WSP that the MS is registered. The MS may be programmedto use telecommunication services of its registered WSP, thus the MS maycontinuously monitor the air interface for carriers that have theassigned SID of the MS.

A wireless signal may take any form including analog and digitalsignals. As an example, a wireless signal may comprise frames, slots,and channels that organize digital bits (i.e., electrical impulsestranslated into “1's” and “0's”) of information. Frames hold slots(e.g., time slots), which hold channels. A sequence of bits makes up aframe. The first sequence of bits may be control information, such as aframe's length, its destination, and its origin. The second sequence ofbits may be the information the frame carries, namely time slots. Thethird sequence of bits of a frame may be an error checking routine,known as “error detection and correction bits.” The slots themselves canhold individual BTS-MS communication information, such as callinformation within the frame. The call information may be multiplexedpieces of conversation as well as signaling and control data. Specifictime slots may be dedicated paired frequencies which are the channels.The SID may be transmitted within a control channel of a wirelesssignal.

B. Shared Antenna-Arrangement

According to one embodiment, WSPs may share a common antenna system orantenna-arrangement within a cell site. Referring to FIG. 2, oneembodiment of a cell site 200 is illustrated. The cell site 200 may havea tower 202, an antenna-arrangement 204 (illustrated with three antennas(e.g., A1, A2, A3)), a base station controller 206, and multiple groupsof radio equipment 208, 210, and 212. The antenna-arrangement 204 of thecell site 200 is connected to the base station controller 206, which isconnected to each of the groups of radio equipment 208, 210, and 212.Each group of radio equipment 208, 210, and 212 may be operated by adifferent WSP. Alternatively, multiple groups of radio equipment in thecell site 200 may be operated by the same WSP. Furthermore, multipleWSPs may operate the same group of radio equipment.

The connections between the antenna-arrangement 204 and the base stationcontroller 206, and between the base station controller 206 and each ofthe groups of radio equipment 208, 210, and 212 may be directconnections as illustrated in FIG. 2. Alternatively, the connections maybe indirect connections through intervening elements or systems, such asother antenna interfaces or cabling. Each of the connections, whetherdirect or indirect, may be a wired or a wireless connection.

The antenna-arrangement 204 may be any antenna system desired. Althoughonly one antenna-arrangement 204 is illustrated, more than oneantenna-arrangement may be present at the cell site 200 and connected tothe base station controller 206. In addition, although theantenna-arrangement 204 illustrated in FIG. 2 only has three antennas(e.g., A1, A2, A3), the antenna-arrangement 204 may include any numberof antennas. As used herein, the term antenna-arrangement 204 may referto an antenna operable to produce a radiation pattern to transmit andreceive wireless signals. The term antenna-arrangement 204 may alsorefer to a group of antennas, a rack of antennas, an antenna system, oran antenna array, which has multiple antenna elements. In addition, theterm antenna-arrangement 204 may refer to multiple antenna systems,which have multiple antenna arrays. Other arrangements of antennas andantenna systems may also be used.

Each group of radio equipment 208, 210, and 212 may include a radiotransmitter and a receiver that are able to process wireless signals.Other equipment may be present as well within the groups of radioequipment 208, 210, and 212. Although FIG. 2 only illustrates threegroups of radio equipment, more or fewer groups of radio equipment maybe connected to the base station controller 206.

The base station controller 206 may dynamically (i.e., in real time)assign antennas of the antenna-arrangement 204 (i.e., antennas A1, A2,and/or A3) to the WSPs operating at the cell site 200 in order toprovide a communication interface between mobile stations and acorresponding group of radio equipment operated by a WSP. The assignmentof an antenna may allow a WSP to have exclusive use of the antenna.

The base station controller 206 may also dynamically route signalsreceived at the antenna-arrangement 204 to the groups of radio equipment208, 210, and 212 through respective communication paths. Acommunication path may include a group of radio equipment, the basestation controller 206, the antenna-arrangement 204, and an airinterface.

The base station controller may additionally dynamically route signalsreceived from the groups of radio equipment 208, 210, and 212 toantennas of the antenna-arrangement 204 to be radiated through arespective communication path.

An MS may subscribe to service by a particular WSP, such as SprintSpectrum L.P. The MS may transmit wireless signals through an airinterface, and an antenna of the antenna-arrangement 204, such asantenna A1, may receive the signals. The base station controller 206will receive the wireless signals from antenna A1. The base stationcontroller 206 may identify that the MS is a subscriber of SprintSpectrum L.P. and route the wireless signal to the group of radioequipment owned by Sprint Spectrum L.P.

Signals may be sent from the group of radio equipment to the MS in asimilar manner. The base station controller 206 may receive a signalfrom the group of radio equipment owned by Sprint Spectrum L.P. and thebase station controller 206 may identify that the signal is to be sentto a particular MS that subscribes to Sprint Spectrum L.P. The basestation controller 206 may route the signal to an antenna of theantenna-arrangement that has been assigned to Sprint Spectrum L.P. to beradiated to the MS.

FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of a cell site 300. The cell site300 may be similar to cell site 200, since the cell site 300 has a tower302, a base station controller 304, and groups of radio equipment 306,308, and 310. However, cell site 300 has three antenna-arrangements 312,314, and 316. The base station controller 306 may select one of theantenna-arrangements 312, 314, and 316 to radiate signals from thegroups of radio equipment 306, 308, and 310. In addition, the basestation controller 306 may select more than one of theantenna-arrangements 312, 314, and 316 to radiate signals for arespective group of radio equipment. The base station controller 306 mayalso select one or more of the antennas (i.e., A1, A2, A3) of theantenna-arrangements 312, 314, and 316 to radiate signals for arespective group of radio equipment. More or fewer antenna-arrangementsmay be present at cell site 300.

In addition, the base station controller 306 may select a group of radioequipment from the groups of radio equipment 306, 308, and 310 toprocess signals received at antennas of the antenna-arrangements 312,314, and 316. More than one group of radio equipment may be selected aswell.

FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of a cell site 400. The cell site400 may include an antenna-arrangement 402, a base station controller404, and multiple groups of radio equipment 406 and 408. Although onlytwo groups of radio equipment are illustrated, any number of groups ofradio equipment may be used within the cell site 400.

The antenna-arrangement 402 is illustrated with three antennas, e.g.,A1, A2, and A3. However, the antenna-arrangement 402 may include anynumber of antennas, and also more than one antenna-arrangement may beused within the cell site 400. Each of the antennas may produce multipleradiation patterns or beams. For example, each antenna in FIG. 4 isillustrated with three beams, e.g., B1, B2, and B3, although theantennas may produce more or fewer than three beams.

In one embodiment, the antenna-arrangement 402 may be shared within anin-building wireless communication system. A building will typicallyhave only a few optimal antenna sites and a limited amount of space.Therefore, the cell site 400 enables WSPs to share oneantenna-arrangement, which allows for an optimal use of the equipment.The cell site 400 may be used within facilities such as undergroundbuildings, hotels, convention centers, shopping centers, sports arenas,large multi-tenant office buildings or elsewhere.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of the base station controller 404.The base station controller 404 may include an interface 502, whichconnects to antenna-arrangements, such as antenna-arrangement 402 ofFIG. 4, a processing unit 504, and an interface 506, which connects togroups of radio equipment, such as groups of radio equipment 406 and 408of FIG. 4. The interfaces 502 and 506 may be any communication interfacethat can send and receive signals.

The processing unit 504 may include an extraction function 508 and arouting function 510. These functions, and additional functions ifpresent, of the processing unit 504 may be provided using machinelanguage instructions or software with object-oriented machine languageinstructions, such as the C++ programming language. However, otherprogramming languages (such as the C programming language for instance)could be used as well.

The processing unit 504 may operate according to an operating system,which may be any suitable commercially available embedded or disk-basedoperating system, or any proprietary operating system. The processingunit 504 may consist of one or more smaller processing units, including,for example, a programmable digital signal processing engine. Theprocessing unit 504 may also be implemented as a single applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC) to improve speed and to economizespace.

Storage (not illustrated in FIG. 5) may also be included within the basestation controller 404 and may include main memory and secondarystorage. The main memory may include random access memory (RAM). Mainmemory can also include any additional or alternative memory device ormemory circuitry. Secondary storage can be provided as well and may bepersistent long term storage, such as read only memory (ROM), optical ormagnetic disks, compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), or any othervolatile or non-volatile mass storage systems. Machine languageinstructions comprising the extraction function 508 and the routingfunction 510 may be stored within storage of the base station controller404. Other data may also be stored in the storage (such as a table ofdata that correlates SIDs with WSPs, for instance).

The base station controller 404 may be an interface between groups ofradio equipment and antenna-arrangements of a cell site. The basestation controller 404 identifies the SID within wireless signals. Forsignals received into the base station controller 404 from anantenna-arrangement, the base station controller 404 routes the wirelesssignals to a wireless service provider's group of radio equipmentidentified by the SID. For signals received into the base stationcontroller 404 from a group of radio equipment of a WSP, the basestation controller 404 selects an antenna to radiate the signals.

Referring to FIG. 4, as an MS travels from a coverage area of oneantenna to another, the M mobile station's signal is identified by anearest antenna of the cell site 400 and then forwarded to the basestation controller 404. The extraction function 508 of the processingunit 504 within the base station controller 404 may be able to determinethe SID of an MS signal. For example, the base station controller 404may parse a wireless signal into frames, and then parse the frames intoslots and channels. The binary string representing the SID may be withinone of the channels of the signal. The base station controller 404 mayextract the SID from a channel of the signal and compare it with theSIDs of the WSPs at the cell site 400.

The routing function 510 of the processing unit 504 within the basestation controller 404 may be able to determine which WSP to assign areceiving antenna based at least in part on the SID within the signal.The routing function 510 may compare the SID within the signal to atable of SIDs of the WSPs operating at the cell site 400, for example.If the SID matches an SID of a WSP at the cell site 400, the basestation controller 404 may route the wireless signal to thecorresponding group of radio equipment.

If the SID does not match an SID of a WSP at the cell site 400, then theMS is may not be registered with a WSP that operates at the cell site400. The base station controller 404 may route wireless signalstransmitted by this MS to a group of radio equipment of a WSP that has aroaming agreement with the WSP that the MS is registered. A roamingagreement is a contract between two WSPs to allow a mobile stationregistered with one of the WSPs to use services of the other WSP for anadditional surcharge. Typically, an MS will operate within a coveragearea of its WSP. However, the MS may travel out of the coverage area ofits WSP and still operate using coverage areas of other WSPs.

The extraction function 508 of the processing unit 504 within the basestation controller 404 may also be able to determine the SID of a signalreceived at the base station controller 404 from the groups of radioequipment 406 or 408. The routing function 510 of the processing unit504 within the base station controller 404 may then determine, based atleast in part on the SID within the signal, which antenna of theantenna-arrangement 402 to send the signal to be radiated.

The base station controller 404 may also route signals (either from theantenna-arrangement 402 to a group of radio equipment or from a group ofradio equipment to the antenna-arrangement 402) based also on additionalfactors alone or in combination with the SID of a signal. For example,the base station controller 404 may route signals based on a time of daythat the signals were received or based on an availability of antennas.In addition, the base station controller 404 may route signals based oncurrent and/or past signal traffic patterns on the antenna-arrangement502. Furthermore, the base station controller 404 may route signalsbased on any combination of these factors or in combination with otheradditional factors as well.

In one embodiment, the base station controller 404 may follow a routineof antenna assignments or signal routing. For example, each group ofradio equipment 406 and 408 may correspond to a separate WSP, such as apersonal communication service provider and a wireless Internet serviceprovider. The WSPs may have an agreement, such that between the hours of8 AM–6 PM, the personal communication service provider may have use of amajority of the antennas, and between 6 PM–8 AM, the wireless Internetservice provider may have use of the majority of antennas. The basestation controller 404 may assign the antennas (e.g., A1, A2, A3) foruse solely by one or the other groups of radio equipment 406 and 408during these time periods. The routine of assignments may be determinedaccording to past and/or predicted call models or traffic patterns.

The base station controller 404 may also dynamically assign antennas ofthe antenna-arrangement 402 to provide an air interface between an MSand the groups of radio equipment 406 and 408. For instance, in theabove example, if during the 6 PM–8 AM time period, traffic for thewireless Internet service is low and the antennas serving the personalcommunication service provider are overloaded, the base stationcontroller 404 may re-assign antennas to the group of radio equipmentcorresponding to the personal communication service provider. Theassignment of antennas may be completed on an hourly basis or on areal-time basis dependent upon an availability of the antennas.

In another embodiment, the base station controller 404 may assignindividual beams of the antennas of the antenna-arrangement 402 to thegroups of radio equipment 406 and 408 based at least in part on an SIDor other WSP identifier of a signal received at the antenna-arrangement402. The antenna-beams, e.g., B1, B2, and B3, may each have abeam-identifier to enable the base station controller 404 to distinguishbetween them. The base station controller 404 may assign twoantenna-beams of each of the antennas to group of radio equipment 406and one antenna-beam of each of the antennas to group of radio equipment408, based upon an agreement between the WSPs that operate the groups ofradio equipment 406 and 408, or based upon incoming wireless signals.

In addition to use of the SID or other WSP identifier, the base stationcontroller 404 may allocate antennas and/or antenna-beams based onpreferred services or agreements between WSPs. For example, two WSPs mayoperate at a cell site that has one shared antenna-arrangement. One ofthe WSPs may have priority for use of the antennas. An MS thatsubscribes to the priority WSP may incur additional charges for priorityusage of the antennas.

As an example, wireless signal traffic patterns may be present within abuilding. For example, between 9 AM–5 PM, a large number of mobilestations may be in use, which results in a large amount of wirelesssignal traffic. In addition to use of the SID or other WSP identifier,the base station controller 404 may assign beams of antennas to areas ofthe building that have offices during based on a time of day, such asduring 9 AM–5 PM, to provide a communication medium for buildingemployees during business hours. Similarly, between 5 PM–10 PM, otherareas of a building may be populated such as a restaurant or shoppingarea within a basement of the building. During this time period, thebase station controller 404 may direct the beams of the antennas toprovide wireless service coverage to the basement area to provide acommunication medium in areas not related to offices during non-businesshours. The base station controller 404 may follow such a routine inorder to provide effective coverage for mobile stations.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting functional blocks of a method 600according to one embodiment. Initially, an base station controller, suchas base station controller 404 illustrated in FIG. 4, may receive asignal that has an SID, as shown at block 602, directly or indirectlyfrom one of the groups of radio equipment 406 and 408. The base stationcontroller 404 may then determine the SID of the signal as shown atblock 604, and based at least in part on the SID, the base stationcontroller 404 may select from the antenna-arrangement 402 one or moreantennas to radiate the signal, as shown at block 606, such as forexample antenna A1. The base station controller 404 may then send thesignal to the selected antenna (e.g., antenna A1) as shown at block 608.And antenna A1 may then radiate the signal.

The antennas, i.e., A1, A2, and A3, of the antenna-arrangement 402 mayradiate a signal by modulating the signal on electromagnetic (EM) wavesat a steady frequency of alternation or by other means of modulation andthen emitting the EM waves in the form a radio frequency (RF) signal.

FIG. 7 is another flowchart depicting functional blocks of a method 700according to one embodiment. Initially, the base station controller 404may receive a signal that has an SID, as shown at block 702, from anantenna of the antenna-arrangement 402. The base station controller 404may then determine the SID of the signal as shown at block 704, andbased at least in part on the SID, the base station controller 404 mayselect a group of radio equipment to process the signal, as shown atblock 706. The base station controller 404 may then send the signal tothe selected group of radio equipment as shown at block 708. Theselected group of radio equipment may receive the signal and thenprocess the signal.

The groups of radio equipment 406 and 408 may process signals bydemodulating the signal using a modulation protocol associated with theidentified SID of the signal. For example, a signal may be sent usingPCM. The selected group of radio equipment may determine that the signalis pulse code modulated and then the group of radio equipment may beable to demodulate the signal using a form of PCM demodulation (i.e.,coherent demodulation).

The base station controller 404 may also simultaneously receive signals,either from the antenna-arrangement 402, from the groups of radioequipment 406 and 408 or from both. The base station controller 404 maydetermine which of the signals are to be routed to theantenna-arrangement 402 and which of the signals are to be routed to oneof the groups of radio equipment 406 or 408 according to which interface(i.e., interface 502 or interface 506) that the base station controller404 received the signal. For example, if the signal was received intothe base station controller 404 at interface 502, then the signal is tobe routed to one of the groups of radio equipment 406 or 408, and if thesignal was received into the base station controller 404 at interface506, then the signal is to be routed to the antenna-arrangement 402. Ifthe base station controller 404 simultaneously receives multiple signalsfrom the antenna-arrangement 402, the base station controller 404 maydetermine which group of radio equipment to route the signals based atleast in part on the SID of the signals and send the signalssubstantially simultaneously to their selected respective groups ofradio equipment. Similarly, the base station controller 404 maysimultaneously select antennas to radiate signals that the base stationcontroller 404 simultaneously received from the groups of radioequipment 406 and 408.

C. Types of Antennas

In one embodiment, the antennas of the antenna-arrangement 204illustrated in FIG. 2, the antennas of the antenna-arrangements 312,314, and 316 illustrated in FIG. 3, and/or the antennas of theantenna-arrangement 402 illustrated in FIG. 4 are directional adaptivebeam-forming antennas. An adaptive antenna-arrangement can adjust to anRF environment as it changes, and dynamically alter radiation patternsto optimize the performance of a wireless communication system. Theadaptive antenna-arrangement may continuously distinguish betweeninterfering signals by calculating their directions of arrival. Theadaptive antenna-arrangement can also continuously update its beampattern based on changes in both the desired and interfering signallocations. An adaptive antenna-arrangement may provide a communicationmedium for an MS as the MS travels from one area to another.

The antennas of the antenna-arrangement 204, the antennas of theantenna-arrangements 312, 314, and 316, and/or the antennas of theantenna-arrangement 402 may also be fixed-beam or switched-beamantenna-arrangements that may provide individual coverage areas oroverlapping coverage areas. A fixed-beam antenna may consistentlyprovide a similar beam that has a substantially unchanging shape andbeam width so that mobile stations within the beam may be provided acommunication medium by the antenna. A switched-beam antenna-arrangementmay divide coverage areas into several smaller coverage areas. Eachportion of a coverage area is provided by a predetermined fixed-beampattern with the greatest sensitivity located in the center of the beamand less sensitivity elsewhere. The switched-beam antenna-arrangementallows one of several predetermined fixed-beam patterns (based onweighted combinations of antenna outputs) with the greatest output powerto be selected to provide a communication interface between an MS and aBTS. The switched-beam antenna-arrangement switches its beam indifferent directions throughout space by changing phase differences ofsignals used to control the antenna-arrangements.

If adaptive or switched-beam antennas are employed, one antenna mayprovide a communication medium for essentially only one MS, because theantennas dynamically direct their beams to provide a changing coveragearea for the MS. As the MS moves, the antennas adjust the shape andwidth of their beams to accommodate the MS. Alternatively, if fixed-beamantennas are employed, multiple mobile stations may concurrently use theantennas.

As another example, dual-band antennas may be used as well. For example,antennas designed to transmit within the frequency bands of 824–896 MHzand 1850–1990 MHz may be used. Also, dual band antennas such as a2.4/5.8 GHz dual-band antenna designed for Bluetooth/IEEE-802.11afacility applications may be used in particular for an in-buildingwireless communication system for mobile stations that subscribe tomultiple services. Other types of antennas may be used as well.

D. Other Examples

Those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains maymake modifications resulting in other embodiments employing principlesof the present invention without departing from its spirit orcharacteristics. Accordingly, the described embodiments are to beconsidered in all respects only as illustrative, and not restrictive,and the scope of the present invention is, therefore, indicated by theappended claims rather than by the foregoing description. Consequently,while the present invention has been described with reference toparticular embodiments, modifications apparent to those skilled in theart would still fall within the scope of the invention.

For example, although the term “SID” was defined by way of example to bea particular form of a system identification code, the term SID, as usedherein, more generally refers to any system identifier regardless ofform and regardless of how it is assigned.

In addition, while the foregoing description is presented in terms ofcells and sectors, the method and system presented herein can be appliedequally for any area of a wireless communication system. Furthermore,the method and system presented herein can extend equally for use in anywireless communication network (e.g., time division multiple access(TDMA) network, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) network,etc.). Other examples are possible as well.

1. A system comprising: one or more antenna-arrangements, eachantenna-arrangement being operable to provide a radiation patterndefining an air interface for radiating and receiving signals, eachgiven signal of the signals having a system identification code (SID); abase station controller connected to the one or moreantenna-arrangements; and a plurality of groups of equipment connectedto the base station controller, each group of equipment being associatedwith a respective wireless service provider, wherein the SID identifiesthe respective wireless service provider, wherein when the base stationcontroller receives a first given signal from a givenantenna-arrangement, the base station controller selects, based at leastin part on the respective wireless service provider associated with theSID in the first given signal, a group of radio equipment from theplurality of groups of radio equipment to process the first givensignal, and wherein when the base station controller receives a secondgiven signal from a given group of equipment, the base stationcontroller selects, based at least in part on the SID in the secondgiven signal, at least one antenna-arrangement from the one or moreantenna-arrangements to radiate the second given signal.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein the one or more antenna-arrangements comprise anantenna-arrangement selected from the group consisting of anantenna-element, a group of antennas, an antenna array, and an antennasystem.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein each group of equipmentcomprises radio transmitters and receivers to modulate and demodulatethe signals.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the base stationcontroller selects the at least one antenna-arrangement from the one ormore antenna-arrangements to radiate the second given signal based alsoon a condition selected from the group consisting of a time of day, acurrent traffic pattern on the one or more antenna-arrangements, a pasttraffic pattern on the one or more antenna-arrangements, and anavailability of use of the one or more antenna-arrangements.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein when the base station controller receives thesecond given signal from the given group of radio equipment, the basestation controller selects, based at least in part on the SID in thesecond given signal, at least one antenna-beam from the at least oneantenna-arrangement to radiate the second given signal.
 6. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the base station controller selects the group ofequipment from the plurality of groups of equipment to process the firstgiven signal based also on a condition selected from the groupconsisting of a time of day, and an availability of use of the pluralityof groups of equipment.